Geoffrey Cayle F.

Alemania | VII – Duhem | English Month - Article | November 23, 2021

COVID-19 and its Effect on Pupils

In December 2019, a strain of coronavirus, known as SARS-CoV-2 was detected in Wuhan, China.[1] Today, this
virus has infected a majority of the population, causing a multitude of physical symptoms, mostly in the respiratory
system.[2][3] Due to this, most events, jobs, and other outside activities were postponed/closed for the safety of the
general population. However the most important outside activity that was closed are schools.[4][5] This caused impact
not only from the schools itself, but also on students. This article aims to inform about COVID-19 and the effect on
students.

When talking about the current problems that students face, one can’t ignore the technological issues that one may
face, specifically, internet connectivity. Sometimes, internet can go under maintenance due to brownouts, or possible
accidents. And this is bad for students currently enrolling in online classes. However, modules have moderately
circumvented this issue, so a student can still learn when even their internet is down.[6][7]

One more thing to discuss about is the mental health of a student. Sometimes, a sense of isolation can permeate
behind the computer screen of a student due to having a minimal amount of interactions physically, though this has
been negated through messaging applications, electronic mail, etc. Mental actions like stress can also plague the
minds of students especially when schools are taking place online and going outside is prohibited.[8][9][10]

Concluding this article, i want to give my insights on the topics at hand. First, the internet undergoing downtime is
unanimously disruptive, albeit not affecting modular students. A good solution in my opinion is to either excuse
students who are unable to get in a video conferencing application, or have an asynchronous session. And for mental
health of the students, i would suggest to have appropriate rest and health, exercise regularly, and/or engage in
reading or writing. What is your best solution?

1
REFERENCES/CITATIONS
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7159299

2 https://gisanddata.maps.arcgis.com/apps/dashboards/bda7594740fd40299423467b48e9ecf6

3 https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/symptoms-testing/symptoms.html

4 https://www.wsj.com/articles/coronavirus-fallout-a-roundup-of-canceled-events-11583943224

5 https://en.unesco.org/news/290-million-students-out-school-due-covid-19-unesco-releases-first-global-numbers-and-mobilizes

6 https://elearningindustry.com/advantages-and-disadvantages-online-learning

7 https://helplineph.com/opinion/top-5-advantages-of-modular-learning/

8 https://elearningindustry.com/advantages-and-disadvantages-online-learning

9 https://www.who.int/teams/mental-health-and-substance-use/mental-health-and-covid-19

10 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7657035/